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ConCoction is coming up next weekend which means this past week we have been getting things ready. Yay for Amazon and all the things. Well…maybe not all of them but most of them were purchased there. This weekend and the rest of next week I will be putting parts of each of their outfits together with some help from them. So the sewing machine, iron, hand stitching, gluing, and possibly some painting will be happening. I’ve got a Hatsune Miku outfit, Yugo outfit, and Max (Where The Wild Things Are) outfit to put together. I’m planning on being a wild thing from the book as I will be running around after Riley most of the time. Fitting, don’t you think?!

ConCoction will be at a new hotel this year which means better parking but no indoor pool so I’m hoping everything goes okay with Riley. Worse case, I guess we walk the halls…alot. The older two are excited to see what the kids program has to offer again this year. With any luck the kids will all have outfits they like to wear, fun with other kids while there, maybe learn a few things, and hopefully sleep well (because lack of sleep makes for grumpy kids). Since this may be the first solo mama and kids weekend vacation away I’m hoping for the best as Pennsic is going to be the same but in a tent. That idea is not frightening at all. 😶

This month has been pretty hectic and it’s only January! The beginning of the year started off with us moving. The circumstances were unfortunate but thanks to family and friends we were able to move everything within a week. Let me tell you packing and moving during the school year was stressful. But we are moved and the kids have also switched schools successfully. All I have left to do is finish unpacking and a bit of cleaning that still needs to be done here.

Thankfully after the stress of moving I was able to spend a day at DeCONpression which is ultimately a convention to help you unwind from conventions or in my case a move. There are classes, panels, game rooms of all sorts, parties and lots of booze. So after an afternoon of relaxation, which meant for the most part sleep, I got to enjoy a party then got to sleep in a bit before heading back home. It was absolutely needed.

This past weekend all of us went to a ‘Not-So’ Regular Event in the Cleftlands. I had managed to put together a few more pieces of clothing for the kids and a dress for me just in time for the event. The older two have picked out time periods and names but my sewing skills need some improvement before I tackle what they are looking for. I’ve gone with pretty basic clothing options so far but have instead been trying to learn how to sew with the different materials. Some materials are easier than others, just like some patterns are easier than others as well. I would also like to have at least one set of outfits with coordinating colors. This is one of the main reasons why I made each kid something new for this event. That being said, I still intend to add things to the outfits but that will be a post for another time.

As always we enjoyed our time at a Cleftlands event. Rori had fun helping with the younger kids and whatever else was asked of her by the adults in charge. She is also in the process of making a circlet. Let me just say, jewelry is farther down on my list to learn and make but I’m glad she was able to find something she wants to learn about and do. Liam had fun hanging out in the kid area for most of the day. He did get to try some rapier fighting/exercises. Rori, however, was a bit sad she missed out but hopefully she will get a chance in the future. Riley walked around with me throughout the day. There were several open rooms on the main level that we visited when he became over stimulated as well as a few trips to sit in the car. But he did a good job the few times we went in the main room with the fighting. I got to enjoy watching some of the fighting and even was able to sit down for some of it. 🙂

The kids and me were able to make it to the Cleftlands Rapier Classic (November’s Dessert Revel). This is not our local SCA group but we’ve enjoyed visiting Cleftlands before so I thought we could venture up there during the week, kids in school and all. It’s about a 2 1/2 hour drive but I’m used to being up late on Wednesdays so that part wasn’t a big deal. We hopped into the car about the same time we usually do on the day before for our local SCA practice/meeting but headed up north. We got there a bit after the suggested time and with some help found our way around. The older two played with some of the other kids that were there while Riley ran around some of the other areas of the building. Liam did end up having a meltdown but overall the kids and I had a good time. I was hoping to make it to this month’s Dessert Revel but I think we will have to skip it. Next month, a new year, hopefully this can become a regular thing for us.

Another year of working Trauma complete. This is the first year I only worked one night and I also did very little scenes. Three flogging scenes to be exact. The week or so before my left shoulder had popped itself back into place while holding Riley before one of his therapy sessions. It made a lovely sound and was a bit painful but I had been in some pain with it before, hence the shoulder pop. It was sore for a while afterwards so I really was avoiding swinging a flogger with that arm for too long. I wasn’t as helpful as I usually am but that’s life sometimes. But…this is also the first year I actually saw more than one performance. The few I saw were really good. As someone who self suspends I really want to give suspending with that rig set up. Maybe in a few years.

Let’s see…

Red Dragon plans were canceled for us this year. I spent the night before out and by the time I got home the freezing rain had started. Yuck! With lack of sleep, shitty weather and kids being up way to early we opted to stay home instead. The pictures from the event looked like everyone had fun though. 🙂

This past week our local shire had a garb night and dance lesson recently and while no dance lesson happened I did manage to get some photos of the kids walking around in library where we meet in their sca garb. Being a book lover, I loved this idea and am glad I was able to get some photos like that. I tend to take a shit ton of pictures, my phone has close to 8,000 photos on it, but this is just a few. A new camera is something that has been on my list of things I want to purchase for years but until I get to buying myself one my phone camera works for now.

What’s the next event we plan to attend? I’m not sure yet when it comes to me and the kids. Josh will be attending an embroidery class tomorrow which he will enjoy and if there are handouts I will enjoy looking at them. I’m slow moving on what I’m deciding as far as a persona or clothing in general. I have been given a sideless surcoat that I think I’m going to make a kirtle (?) for it. Sewing clothes is still foreign for me but I think that is what I’m looking to make. We have some extra fabric that I think I can manage to make one out of, hopefully. The kids still need some new clothes made so as soon as we can purchase more material that will be happening too.

So we have been busy here making a few pieces of clothing for SCA events. It’s looking like it’s about time to make a few more pieces of clothing for upcoming events plus we really do need to continuously make clothes if we plan on going to Pennsic this coming year, which we do. That being said we have made it out to 3 events so far with a mix of clothing we made and clothing that has been given to us.

Our first event was…

Cleftlands Standard Bearers XXVI

We had fun meeting lots of new people. The kids had fun meeting and playing with the other kids that were there. I was able to watch some of the fighting while Riley slept. Overall we felt welcome and would go to another event they hosted. The drive was about 2 1/2 hrs so not too bad.

The second event was…

Harvest Days

I ran around after Riley most of this event. I was able to watch about 10-15 mins worth of the fighting while I ate some lunch, which was awesome. Hopefully next year I will be able to watch a bit more of it. The hound course was neat and even Riley enjoyed watching the hounds run for awhile. Let’s see… the older two had fun watching court and playing with some older kids. Josh did a bit of volunteering. I’m sure we will go back next year but with a tent and a few more things to help with keeping the kids busy and hydrated. (2hr 15min drive)

The third event was…

Haunted Tower 3.5 : Purgatory

The kids had fun running around outside, yet again. Liam did tryout the throwing weapons area and wanted to go back. Unfortunately we weren’t able to do that but since he seems to like that I think thrown weapons might be the focus for him at this point. I do own throwing knives but he seemed to favor a different type of throwing weapon over knives so it looks like we might need to buy something different. That’s okay. 🙂 Neither of the kids have tried the heavy combat fighting yet but I’m sure that will happen at some point. Josh had fun spending the day talking to others and watching the fighting. Since the location was smaller than Harvest Days, I did manage to see part of The Hunt which was interesting. (45min drive)

The next event we plan on attending is Red Dragon. We still need to purchase some sort of shade but all of that just takes time. So for now we are going and enjoying what we can.

We’ve had fun so far this summer. The kids are learning to roller skate, which has been a bit harder for some than others. Lots of time playing outside as well. The older two had birthday celebrations, another year older and all that. 🙂 The kids and I managed to make it to a local Strawberry Festival where they got to ride a few rides and try some strawberry shortcake. We were able to do some day trips, one of which was The Ohio Scottish Games, which we enjoyed and are looking forward to going to next year. We also were able to go on a mini vacation with my parents, sisters, and their families. We faired well for everyone sharing one condo. Truthfully, it wasn’t that bad and waking up to the sun rising with the sound of the ebb and flow of the lake made early mornings a bit better.

And…we have finally made it out to several SCA practices/meetings. The kids have been enjoying running around outside while fight practice is going on and they are managing the meeting part okay so far. Hubby even got to try on armor and do a little practice fighting too.

Pennsic is coming up soon so there will be a few weeks without any practice or meeting happening but hopefully that won’t cause any set-backs. Consistency does seem to help when it comes to the boys. Recently we checked out several books from the library for research on different areas and time periods for clothing ideas for the family and personas.

Let’s see…MarCon has come and gone. The kids had fun in their outfits. (Pikachu, Anakin Skywalker, and Dennis from Hotel Transylvania 2) We ran into the same issue with the ears for pikachu that we did for her sylveon outfit. (sigh) One of these cons we are going to manage to make the ears work the first time round. But we came up with a last minute solution that did the trick. We saw a few games that the kids were interested in. The kids room had some fun activities to do throughout the day we were there. They also had foam fighting that my middle child tried and enjoyed. 🙂 Overall MarCon was a success for us. Maybe next year we can do more than one day.

We also just recently got a kitten, Gin. She seems to like to nap throughout the day and want to play at ungodly early hours in the morning. (silly kitty) It’s been good having an animal in the family again. The kids have taken to playing with her when they get home from school, which she seems to enjoy. Even the youngest has been gentle with her and enjoys petting her throughout the day.

And tomorrow is officially the last day of school. The kids are excited to start the summer break and I cannot believe that May is almost over. I had planned on having some more information about the local SCA group by now but why not put that off for a few more week’s. 😉 I hear a local practice might be best but if they have a schedule posted I haven’t found it nor do I know which group is the local one. I’ve a ways to still go on that front and that’s okay.

In the meantime we will be getting a list together of what the kids want to do this summer. Oh the possibilities . . .

Life just keeps going so it is always nice to take time to head out with the kids for a walk in nature and Earth Day seemed like a perfect time to do so. We had fun walking on a few paths through the woods and across a stone walk over water. We were lucky enough to go when very few people were out and about, yay quiet time. It’s always nice to just walk quietly through the woods, well as quiet as one can be with three kids along for the walk. 😉

Most everything else is going pretty good. I had fun with hubby and friends at a party this past Friday night. 😊 Marcon will be here before we know it and we are still getting everything ready for that. The kids outfits aren’t quite done yet but their is about 3 more weeks to get things done. I’m pretty sure we will be able to get most of it done.(fingers crossed) I still don’t have anything gathered together or made for me. Hopefully with the 3 weeks I will be able to but we will see.

Summer break will be here before I know it and I have no idea what all we will do during it. There are a few activities I want to look into for the kids, so there is that. We’re still dealing with the school stuff for next year for the youngest but that’s to be expected.

How I spent my weekend was drastically different from say 5 or 6 years ago being an exmormon on General Conference weekend. This past weekend was the good idea, bad idea party for the local Barfleet chapter. I had fun to hanging out with friends and watching them play some games. I haven’t ventured into playing the table top games yet but watching the Harry Potter game was intriguing along with Munchkin Chthulhu.

Sunday was mostly spent helping the kids do their laundry. Since we have to go to the apartment laundry room a few buildings down it required several trips back and forth. Sigh. Gotta love the never endingness of laundry.

MarCon tickets have been purchased and the kids are excited to go to another convention. 🙂 On top of that they are already mentioning things that they want to do this summer so I will be putting together a list to add to soon for that. And this past Wednesday I remembered how bad my back is after doing some acroyoga with a local instructor. It was fun and relaxing and will hopefully be able to fit in doing more of that in the future. If planning for MarCon and summer break isn’t enough I’ve been looking more into SCA stuff as well. I’m trying to figure out the best time to get out to an event with the kids.

It is officially Spring Break here. We’ve already been to the park once. The boys had fun for a little bit of time. Unfortunately the youngest had a meltdown. The problem is that any number of things can trigger a meltdown so trying to figure out the source of it can be hard. It’s not often he cries but one minute he was fine the next he was in tears. There were other kids around that may have somehow triggered him or it could have been anything as random as he didn’t like the way the mulch felt when he was running. Either way the need to remove him from the situation was necessary. My oldest son was sad to leave since he was playing with another little boy but he thankfully understood. So with very little fuss we all buckled up and headed to get some ice cream. By the time we got to Dairy Queen he had calmed down and we enjoyed some ice cream on our long drive home.

I’m not sure what else we will do this week. I’m sure at some point we will go for a walk, possibly visit COSI or the Zoo, and more baking, we made chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting that turned out well last week and my daughter has already requested another dessert. There will probably be some crafts in there as well. Hopefully finishing up listening to “The Buddha’s Apprentice at Bedtime” by Dharmachari Nagaraja. 🎧

In other news, since Cleveland ConCoction was a hit for all of us we are planning on going to MARCon. Pikachu, Anakin Skywalker, and Voltron have already been requested as cosplay outfits. We should have enough time to get those done, at least one of them done for each. I’m still debating on putting together a cosplay outfit or not since I spend most of my time running around after my youngest. I’m not sure it is feasible yet. I’ve toyed with the idea of Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Alice from Resident Evil, Mavis from Hotel Transylvania, and Wednesday Addams. But I might just go as me, mom of three crazy kids.😊